Nuno Espirito Santo shares why he played Morgan Gibbs-White over Elliot Anderson vs West Ham

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Nottingham Forest thrashed West Ham 3-0 at the City Ground on Saturday to climb to third place in the Premier League.

At this stage, we might need to wake up from dreamland! Forest are making a mockery of early season predictions from pundits and are really starting to push on.

Sam Matterface has confessed that he’s already changed his mind about Forest after predicting them for a season of relative struggle once again.

Forest won at the weekend courtesy of goals from Chris Wood, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ola Aina, with the Hammers seeing Edson Alvarez sent off in the first half.

Ahead of kick-off, it was the team sheet that provided the most intrigue. Morgan Gibbs-White returned from injury and started ahead of Elliot Anderson.

The Geordie performer had been in fine form with Gary Neville praising Anderson during last weekend’s win over Leicester.

Nuno Espirito Santo was naturally quizzed on that decision and he’s made a confession following the routine win for the Reds.

• READ MORE: Nigel Reo-Coker names two Forest stars who have impressed him this season

Nuno Espirito Santo shares why he started Morgan Gibbs-White

It appears that this was in no way a slight on the performances of Anderson and it seems that he’s been struggling with a knock of late too.

Anderson missed an open training session at the City Ground last Tuesday with a recovery session put on for him back at the training ground instead.

With that in mind, Espirito Santo clearly felt as though Gibbs-White was the right player to start with on Saturday, with Anderson stepping off the bench late on.

He told the club’s official website: “It was not a tough decision, it was realising that both of them have problems, have knocks.

“The way that we decided is the best way. Morgan was some games out, his fitness is not the best still, Elliot was doing amazing but he’s had a difficult situation with his foot, he needed some injections.

“So I’m proud of them for understanding it’s not about them, it’s about the team and understanding that during the season everyone is going to be needed.”

Nuno selection highlights squad depth

During Gibbs-White’s first two seasons at the club, it would have been seriously detrimental had he missed any games but now that isn’t the case.

The Forest star is still a quality player and he remains very important but it’s great to see now that if he doesn’t play, others can step in.

Anderson might have been disappointed not to play but these comments from Espirito Santo suggest he might have got the nod had he been completely fit.

Gibbs-White produced a typically energetic performance for the Reds and it’s great that he’s now fit enough to at least be in contention.

The international break is coming up on the horizon and perhaps that will allow Gibbs-White more time to completely get over his ankle problem.